


The Infinity Crisis

by jjpdn



Category: RWBY, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 10:42:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20113792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjpdn/pseuds/jjpdn
Summary: Do good men make good rulers? Faced with a new world in which their powers make them influential, team RWBY tries to help out of the goodness of their own hearts, for better... or for worse. (name/summary change) [Alternate History caused by Time Travel, Sensitive Matters]





	1. The Snap

**Author's Note:**

> A/N (August 4, 2019): Thought I might as well post on AO3, curious about the community there. I'll post the other chapters over the next few days. 
> 
> A/N (July 19, 2019): Simplified the unimportant RWBY stuff.
> 
> A/N: (Feb 11, 2019): Thought to make the time travel aspect more explicit. 
> 
> So there! I’m revamping this chapter with 2000% more effort! If you guys thinks certain things should be reverted, feel free to comment what and why. Politely, plz. 
> 
> For people who are rereading, I’ve changed the beginning, and added a new scene at the end. Fixes in characterization everywhere, though. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any of the MARVEL/RWBY things in this fic.
> 
> Beta: Path of a Writer and Rune

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

A robed, bald, Celtic sorceress knelt, still as stone, on the cool, paved floor of the Kamar-Taj, training ground of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

For millennia the sorcerers of this order protected the Sanctums: three magical bases that stabilized the fabric of spacetime and stopped otherworlders from coming through. The shield was so powerful that even gods had a hard time passing.

And now, it was cracking.

“Ancient One, the seal in the London Sanctum is also in the process of overloading.” one of her disciple, a plump, asian man reported, as he stepped into the room.

She didn’t respond. Through meditation, her metaphysical form had separated from her body and sought the cause of the disturbance. After all, she had to know what they were facing before they could fight it.

Her spirit flew through the ceiling and into the lower troposphere, then made another jump straight into space. Then, she phased out of the real world to check the barrier. She caught athe glimpse of something glimmering like glas-

Blinding pain struck her, snapping her form back into her body. She awakened with a gasp.

“No more time...” the sorceress realized.

She was right. It turned dark around them as the Sanctums failed and eldritch, incomprehensible evils easily tore the simple barrier between realms. Dormammu, Shuma-Gorath, and demons all peaked through and saw easy pickings. All at the same time, they reached out, excited to finally be able to wrap their claws around the planet.

The Ancient One readied herself. She wasn’t about to go down without a fight, but without the Sanctums, beating even one of these entities was impossible. Wong did the same, willing to fall in the path of duty.

...and then the darkness abruptly disappeared.

Confused, but still wary, she checked her own connection to the dark dimension where Dormammu reigned. If the Lord of Chaos had come through, the link would have either been severed or have grown so strong that it’d taken her over. It was untouched.

Using a mystical, two-finger ring on her hand, she opened up a portal to each of the Sanctums and peered through. Each of them was undamaged, but the magic that made them do their job was gone. Now, even more baffled, she checked the status of normal population centers like New York City and Beijing.

Nothing wrong, they were still bustling with life.

“How are we not slain?” her disciple whispered in disbelief.

For the first time since very long ago, she had no answer.

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

It was supposed to be a normal day.

After the mess that was Mountain Glenn, the four girls, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, composing team RWBY had thought that they’d be getting some rest before the Vytal Festival spiced stuff up again. There was still school, so no oversleeping, but the monotony of Professor Port’s class was almost welcome compared to the release of Grimm monsters inside the city of Vale’s walls a while ago. It was pure luck that nobody had gotten hurt during that incident as there were too many ways for it to have gone wrong.

Wasn’t a little bit of peace and bonding time earned?

Boom. It was a loud, indirect, digital sound.

“The heck?”

The rotund professor at the front of the classroom turned away from the blackboard to look at a female student in the front. The girl’s quiet exclamation was amplified by the shape of the room, which would be a strange design choice for a lecture room if this wasn’t Beacon. In this prestigious hunstmen academy where the best of the best were trained to become slayers of Grimm and protectors of humanity, the classes themselves were small enough that there could be a decent amount of classroom interactions.

To allow everyone a good view of each other, be it the person lecturing or the audience, the room was constructed so that every row of seats was about two meters higher than the one in front. It wasn’t an efficient use of space, but did allow the professor to see clearly that the student was staring at his portable electronic device.

“Now, now young woman! I am a very generous man and allow many things, but I draw the line at interrupting my lessons!” He scolded boisterously in his deep but animated voice. “The atmosphere of heroism and justice I have built up is very important to understanding my story. Think of your fellow students!” His very serious, thick, grey, walrus-like mustache jiggled as he talked, very seriously.

In a way, the professor was correct even if an ‘atmosphere of heroism and justice’ made no sense. Most of the students were actually asleep before the student’s exclamation, so any noise did, in fact, bother the other students.

The ones who were awake were reading books, like Blake, or struggling to not fall asleep, like the ever studious Weiss. To the right of both sat Ruby, who was making designs for improvements on her mecha-shift scythe Crescent Rose, and finally, Yang, the student who had interrupted the class, who was currently staring at her holographic mobile device in confusion.

Strangely, the chastised student didn’t seem to care much about what her professor was saying. Her eyes were focused on her device. Beside her, her partner Blakee, didn’t even glance, being used to Yang’s antics. It was her sister, Ruby, who reacted. 

“Yang...” the fifteen year old girl whined, “You made me draw a crooked line!” Then she got a glimpse of the screen. “Whaaat… are you watching the news?” she said incredulously. 

That snapped the older sister out of her shock. “Hey! We do have that essay with Professor Peach due tomorrow, you know!” She defended.

Ruby blinked her silver eyes innocently. “Wait, she actually exists? I thought her lessons were just a daydream during Prof. Port’s class.”

Yang shook her head, amused. “Enough about that! Look at this!” She pushed the device to the front of her sister’s face. “A bullhead just crashed into the news station!” A bullhead was a type of flying vehicle that looked like a helicopter without rotors. Instead, it used dust levitation technology to fly.

“You already tried this,” the younger sister glanced at the screen, a bit offended, “I’m not that gullible!”

Before Yang could assure her that it wasn’t a joke, she heard Professor Port tapping his foot in annoyance at being ignored. “Miss Rose and Miss Xiao-long!” Ruby eeped at being called out. “I am very disappointed in your behavior!”

_ Bang _ .

Some random student collapsed bonelessly on his desk, falling fast asleep after the fourth word.

“Sorry, Prof Port!” Yang apologized, putting her device away...

The professor continued as if a student hadn’t gotten knocked out by his voice. “I have half a mind to assign you a detenti - arghh!” He collapsed in the middle of his sentence.

“Professor Port!”

The rest of the students woke up to their professor clenching his gut in pain.

“Something’s… something’s draining my aura!” Aura was a protective barrier surrounding aura-users, huntsmen, and huntresses, that was projected from their unlocked soul. Professor Port’s aura was flaring around him as if defending him from attack. The problem was, there was nothing visible attacking him.

Before the awakening students could react, the man’s aura cracked and shattered like glass. He stared in confusion at his body as he turned to dust, starting from the hand he used to clench his gut to his head.

There was a moment of silence, before the same thing started happening to the students. Friends could only stare speechless as their comrades and teammates went through the same process as their professor, unsure what to do to help, though most were just stunned at the sudden intrusion to their uneventful lives.

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

Blake knew that the world wasn’t fair. 

For the length of known human history, the sub-race of faunus were treated like animals due to their animal features. They were forced to do manual work and lived agonized, short lives, enslaved by their counterparts.

The Faunus Wars changed that. Tens of thousands of faunus rose up against their oppressors, fighting to be recognized as sentient beings with inherent rights. As the dead piled up on both sides, the humans realized that it would be less costly to give into the faunus’ demands. And so they gave up, but only on the surface.

Prejudice was not changed by fancy words on paper.

Blake gripped her book harder. Hidden by her bow, her ears twitched. Her reading material detailed well the betrayals that collapsed the faunus alliance and only made the fire within her stronger. 

...just like it did for the many who joined the terrorist organisation, the White Fang. 

The world wasn’t fair, but that didn’t mean it was right to go around blowing up civilians for crimes many didn’t even know they were committing. The White Fang thought it poetic that they decided to don the mask of monsters after being treated like monsters for so long, but all Blake saw was a bunch of murderers. Just fellow brothers and sisters, falling down a dark path that would only end in everyone’s, humans’ and faunus’ alike, destruction.

And that’s just why Blake tries so hard to fight for her dream of a perfect world. Because sometimes, it feels like she’s the only one standing in the middle. With the human world indifferent, and the faunus’ roaring for blood, she stands in the shadows of the no-man’s land that no politician would cross. 

So, when her extremely sensitive two sets of ears heard a distant explosion and also heard it be echoed on Yang’s phone, she knew the inevitable had happened. A successful terrorist attack on the city of Vale. When innocent students around her starting disintegrating, she knew it was even worse. Maybe some kind of gas attack?

The world wasn’t fair. It gave her impossible tasks and set impossible goals. But even then, she’ll face her destiny head on, for to her… 

There was no more worthy of a cause.

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

Over in Vale, there were no terrorists igniting fear. No, something was happening that was even worse.

Amity Colosseum was a marvel of modern engineering. It was humanity’s symbol of peace, showing that the four kingdoms could thrive together and defy even gravity itself. Made of so much intricate machinery that even a planet could be called less complicated, no one could stare at the floating stadium without awe.

However, its complexity betrayed it when out of nowhere, half its workers turned to dust. The chain of command disintegrated into confusion as automatic systems awaited instruction from people that just weren’t there. When a well-oiled machine loses a bunch of gears mid-use, the results aren’t pretty.

So, Amity slowly fell to earth like the head of an executioner’s axe, surrounded by other similarly pilot-less falling aircrafts, and set the world aflame. 

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

The Grimm in the surrounding forests lifted up their heads. The monsters  _ smelled _ the fear.

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

The students of Beacon did not have time to grieve or even think, for then the Grimm incursion alarms blared. A look outside showed that the sky had turned black by the sheer amount of flying Grimm. What happened in the classroom had happened all across Remnant and the resulting uncontrollable negativity attracted never before seen numbers of Grimm.

Team RWBY didn’t even get a chance to look for the rest of their friends before the Nevermores tore at the walls of Beacon. Students screamed and ran for the door, but in their hurry, fellow classmates were trampled under their feet. All of them were huntsmen, but none had their weapons.

The four girls of team RWBY rushed to their weapons’ lockers, but found their way blocked by Grimm who had broken through the walls. Debris now littered the corridor. The monsters roared before charging. Yang stepped to the front of the group to protect her teammates. Her combat style focused on her fists anyways, so even without her weapons, she was more effective than the rest.

“Run! I’ll catch up!” The blond brawler called as she readied herself.

Her sister wouldn’t have it. “No! I can help too!”

Yang batted a muscled arm away from her using just her aura, then spin kicked the first Beowolf into a wall. “You can’t fight without Crescent Rose anyway! Run!” The wording was bad, but she had to concentrate on her enemies.

Weiss snapped at her. “Yang! Don’t be a dunce, I have glyphs to speed us up! Blake, grab her!”

The faunus rapidly reacted and did as she was asked. Yang yelped as her teammate kicked her legs from under her and fell into Blake’s arms. Beneath the four of them, a white glyph lit up. There was a moment of stillness as more monsters approached them before Weiss sent them flying down the hallway.

The four of them zoomed left and right, trying to find where everyone else was so that they could mount a unified defense. No sign of their friends, team JNPR. They must have lost them in the initial rush to all their weapons.

Weiss halted them before one of the many rooms along Beacon’s halls, where she then stumbled.

“Weiss?” Ruby asked, worried. Her teammate was panting from the exertion of making all those glyphs.

“I… need… a moment…”

More Grimm were breaking through the walls and some parts of the school were even coming down. Distant rumbles of gunfire and screaming were hidden by the crumbling of walls and roars of monsters. Light flickered as dust lines were cut and generators were torn to pieces.

But these four were huntresses. Armed with the supernatural power of aura, bound in their warrior hearts by their common duty and forged in the fires of their past, not even an overwhelming tide of evil could break their spirits.

Yang stood tall and proud, having now disentangled herself from Blake. Her golden mane shone in each flash of the flickering lights, alike her eyes that were radiating with purpose. Her hands were balled up and held at the ready. Legs were spread so that her center of gravity was low, muscles tensed for a dash forward at any moment.

Blake crouched on the balls of her feet. She held herself stable using her fingers, ready to pounce into action. Her cat-like eyes were squinting and scanned every inch of the surroundings, analysing enemies, escape routes and environmental dangers. Atop her head, her extra pair of ears pointed themselves in different directions than her normal ears to increase her range of hearing.

Weiss kneeled on the ground and breathed heavily. However, her head was still tilted so that she could keep an eye on the status of her foes and allies. Her slim legs were positioned so that she could stand up in an instant and her arms were poised elegantly. Even while tired she kept her posture and an air of sophistication.

Finally, there was Ruby, who stood protectively in front of her partner. She was too young, too small, too slim, but her will was strong, and so was her skill. It allowed her to wield a monstrously heavy scythe to decimate her enemies in swirls of red, all while wearing her childish “combat” skirt. Her aura wasn’t too strong either, but through her eyes, one could see the sea of strength that was her soul.

The four of them, mere teenagers, stared down without even the slightest bit of fear towards the monsters that had surrounded them. For even with encroaching defeat, team RWBY showed no fear towards their sworn enemy. This was not Cinder, who was to eventually betray their trust in the worst way possible, or Adam, who would eventually pierce their spirits with one blow. This was the enemy they were prepared for since they were young, the evil that has existed since the dawn of humanity.

“What shall we do?” asked Yang, her voice steady. “There’s too many and we don’t have our weapons.”

“I…” Weiss took another breath, “…might have a way. There was a Schnee once, one who could teleport. The,” she paused, “…art has been lost over time, but, I think I know... how I might be able to reproduce it. I’ll be able to get some of us out of here.”

“Not all of us?”

“Let… let me try first. But I need time. If… if we hide in there, can you keep the door secure?”

Team RWBY looked at each other, but seeing no other way, they ducked inside the room. It was a supply closet full of replacement parts and other tools that adorned its walls, with lots of empty room in the middle. The whole room was about five by five meters.

Blake and Yang grabbed hammers and nails to reinforce the door. They could hear the monsters hurling themselves at the wall repeatedly.

Weiss took a few more moments of rest before she stood up and summoned two glyphs side by side. They were vertical and facing each other, one black and one white. Slowly, they began spinning faster and faster. Ruby stood by her, unsure of what to do and feeling somewhat useless.

Cracking sounds started to come from the wall and door, so the black and yellow duo moved carts of materials to block the door. It wouldn’t help much, but it was all they could do.

After a while, the glyphs were spinning so fast it looked like they were spinning the opposite way. Still, nothing more was happening. Weiss was sweating hard, her eyes closed and muscles tensed in reflection of her mental flexing.

When she finally spoke up, she said what nobody wanted to hear. “I… I… can’t. I can’t make them… spin fast enough.” It was through gritted teeth as she forced every little bit of her strength into the task.

There was a moment of silence.

Luckily, Ruby had an idea, even if she wasn’t sure what was exactly happening. “Weiss, my semblance can move things around me too, think it’ll work with that?”

“T… Try!”

She did, and burst into a stream of rose petals. The stream forced itself to move in a circle in the same directions as the glyphs. Unexpectedly, it worked. The glyphs started accelerating incredibly fast. To the rest of team RWBY, it looked like the space between the two floating, spinning, ethereal symbols was distorting.

“How…?” Stunned, Blake spoke out.

Then, a threshold was hit, and the distorted space burst open, creating a portal. Translucent distortions of space made up the frame, while through the middle, one could see… a desert?

“Arrrrghhhh…” Weiss grimaced. “Even with Ruby, I can only… power it… for one person before it destabilizes. Any… any more and it may sap too much of my aura.”

“Is there some way we can help? Make it stronger?”

“Even if there is… we can’t power it and… nrghhhh… go through it at the same time.”

Blake and Yang looked at each other. Without even speaking, they communicated their mutual horror. The blond put a hand on Blake’s shoulder.

“You go, kitty cat. I’m needed here. I’m the best at unarmed combat.”

“No! You told me that I don’t need to do everything by myself! That we’re a team! I will stay here and make my stand with Ruby and Weiss!” Yellow eyes stared into purple. Both were resolute.

“Blake… I…” The door behind them cracked. “I… I’m sorry.” And Yang grabbed and used her overpowering strength to throw her teammate straight into the portal.

Blake had one last glimpse at Yang’s closed eyes and downcast expression, as if the blond was resigning herself to her fate, before Blake landed back-first into hot sand. She scrambled to her feet, reaching for the portal she came out of, but it closed with a snap.

In the middle of the desert, the cat girl stood, alone in the sand. She fell to her knees.

The world really wasn’t fair.

**~** _ (RWBY: Infinite Crisis)~ _

Blake didn’t know for how long she had sat there on her knees, staring at the sand. The sun didn’t affect her, as aura protected against temperature changes too, a trait of aura that also explains aura-wielder’s resistance to flames.

Her tears and screams gave away to solemn contemplation long ago. In her mind, her final moments with her team replayed again and again, each with a slight variation. She wanted to believe that there must have been a way to save everyone. Maybe if they weren’t so rushed, maybe if they didn’t rush for their weapons and separate from everyone… but they weren’t given a choice, were they? 

The ears atop her head, hidden beneath her bow, twitched. She looked at the sand dunes around herself. Nothing, just endless sand.

Her dual pair of ears could make out distant rumbling. It was slowly getting louder, closer.

The girl stood up and saw the two dust hammers that she and Yang had used had gone through the portal with her. She wrapped her fingers around the handles tightly and picked them up. Testing their weight, she did a practice swing, all while still scanning the horizon.

Finally, she saw it. There was a smoke trail in the distance, like the ones left by rockets. It was in the form of a downwards arc and was slowly being drawn by a falling object. Not really knowing what else to do, she headed for it. There was a chance it could help her back to civilization. And then, back to her friends.

The girl didn’t even want to entertain the thought that they might be dead.

The object disappeared behind a sand dune. A loud bang, followed by what looked liked a rain of metal fragments told her that the object had landed. She was nearing it now, her aura enhanced speed allowing her to rip through the desert landscape.

Blake wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she got to the top of the dune and in sight range, but it surely wasn’t a man amidst all of the metallic debris. Seeing his unmoving body, she cautiously slid down the side of the dune to check on him and stepped silently towards him. Suddenly, he twitched, and the cat girl jumped backwards nimbly, hammers ready.

“Now that’s a real end with a bang.” The man moaned. He was covered in bruises, dirt and basically looked like he just went through a warzone. He threw off most of the pieces of metal attached to him except for a glowing round blue thing in the middle of his chest, before finally noticing Blake. “Oh. Hello there. You know where nearest payphone is?”

“Who are you?” The girl hissed.

“Isn’t it polite to tell me your name first, hammer-girl?” He quipped. The man hurt everywhere and wasn’t sure he could fight one on one with anyone in his state, but couldn’t hold his mouth back.

“Blake.” She replied, still wary. If the person didn’t look like he was armed, it didn’t mean he wasn’t armed.

“Tony, then.”

They stared at each other silently, one not wanting to make the first move and the other not sure as to what to say. 

Finally, the man couldn’t take it anymore. “So, you come here often?” He wanted to smack himself after the words came out.

Blake glared at him, the pain of what had just happened to her still fresh. A small part of her realized that, in a way, she did come here often, just not this exact situation. How many had she left behind, hurt and confused as to why she had done that to them? Even though this time it wasn’t her fault, she had still left, and that realization made the pain all that much stronger. Instead of leaving behind confusion, she left behind a mountain of unsolved problems. Like why did so many people simply vanish? What caused it all?

She finally decided to just ignore his attempt at humor and jump straight to questions. “You know which direction to go to find a city?”

“No, sorry, I’m lost like you. I got kidnapped, built a robot suit and escaped… crazy Thursday, am I right?” He answered flippantly.

“Thanks anyways then.” She turned to walk away.

“Woah! Let’s not be hasty, we’re alone in a desert. Trek together?”

Blake paused. She didn’t want to work with a stranger and he wasn’t even a local who could have given her information. Still, he seemed disheveled and just as lost as her. Ruby, Yang, and even Weiss would be aghast if she left him here.

The faunus sighed. “Alright.” She waited for the man to scavenge some protective clothing off the wreckage to shield himself from the elements. Then, the two of them headed off in a random direction and hoped they were going the right way.

After a few hundred meters, Tony realized something.

“Hey, hammer-girl,” the girl glanced at him to communicate that she was paying him attention, “I really want to ask about why you are wearing a school girl uniform in the middle of a desert, or maybe why you are armed with a pair of hammers, or even just why you are here… But, how the hell are you not sweating?”

He was right. The sun was beating down on the desert relentlessly. Heat made distant landscapes hazy. Not a living thing was in sight, except for the two of them.

The girl, on the other hand, had a completely unblemished school uniform. The sand that was blown up by the wind was seemingly repelled. Her skin still had the same pale, rosy complexion it had before, as if she was walking in the shade. Not a drop of sweat or sand.

Contrasting her, Tony already looked worse than before. The sand had seeped into every crack of his scavenged cloths. Sweat dripped down his skin, making his clothing stick to him. He looked like a desert hobo and felt even worse.

“I’m a huntress.”

Tony waited for more. She didn’t elaborate, instead, focusing on their surroundings.

The man felt like he was talking to a robot. “So, maybe I should hunt some rabbits too, if it makes me invincible to heat and sand. Or is it a rare drop from these rabbits? Should I buy a booster to increase drop rates?”

Blake was not in the mood for any jokes. “Are you playing dumb just to annoy me?” There was no way a man intelligent enough to build a flying suit of armor could not know about Huntsmen.

“So, not that kind of huntress.” Tony nodded to himself. “Is it some special term? The name for a government super soldier project?”

The faunus glared at him, but before anything more could be said, her bow twitched. She whipped her head around to stare at something in front of them.

Far off in the distance in front of them, there was a lone flying object. Her top ears had heard the helicopter blades, not that she knew what a helicopter was.

Tony followed her gaze. “Could that be our rescue?”

The object got closer and the chopping sound got louder. About the time when Tony could finally recognize it as a helicopter, a tiny mysterious object dropped from each wing.

Blake’s eyes widened. She pushed her companion behind her, ignored his yelp, and readied her hammers. Her aura covered her hammers to improve their durability.

She crouched. Her mind went into overdrive, calculating the distance between her and the projectiles. Then she burst into action. The two dots from the helicopter had come close enough to be revealed as missiles.

First, she flung herself forward, sending the sand behind her flying into the air. The faunus followed with a leap high into the air with catlike grace. Injecting the dust inside her hammers with aura, she made twin slashes towards the approaching projectiles.

Before the missiles could even get close, each swing of Blake’s hammers had sent dust flying in a crescent shape straight into her targets. The dust, primed by aura, destroyed the missiles’ tips. The projectiles’ explosives were forced to go off early and the shrapnel did nothing against Blake’s aura.

Tony was watching, shocked, his mouth slightly agape. “Holy shit-“

Blake used the missiles’ scattered fragments still in the air as stepping stones to get even higher, straight into the path of the helicopter. She saw the pilot’s shocked face as she smashed through the window beside him, hammers first. The man was lucky that it was a two-person helicopter, as it meant that Blake had enough room to enter the vehicle through the front window without having to land on him.

The co-pilot seat absorbed her entry through the glass by breaking in half. It slowed her down enough that she could lodge her hammers into nearby metal parts to halt her completely.

When she got back to the front of the helicopter and threatened the pilot to land with her hammers in hand, he didn’t say one word in protest. He also smelled like he had just crapped himself.

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _

Salem, queen of the Grimm, felt nothing but satisfaction as she stared out of the window and at the Grimmlands. Her armies of dark monsters prowled in between crystals of purple Dust that stuck out haphazardly from the ashen ground. Above, a deep purple sky gave everything an ominous hue.

It was quite the powerful sight, but Salem had never cared much about her Grimm armies or her power. Her might was only a means to an end. Her goal? Her own destruction.

Long ago, the gods had punished a young, grieving widow with immortality when she had tried to defeat the natural order and revive her love. In despair, she tried to kill herself by diving into a pool of pure destruction.

However, it did not kill her. No, it did something far worse. She emerged from the pool, changed. From then on, the concept of destruction itself followed her wherever she walked. Her thoughts were infected and her soul was tainted by darkness. Worse of all, she did not know anymore which actions were hers and which were implanted. After all...

The young woman she once was would not have wanted to conquer the world. She would not have fought her lover over a small disagreement they could have talked over. And she also wouldn’t have killed her own darling, sweet children in blind rage.

Living like this was not living. It was a strange state of undeath that embodied only suffering. A life without choice. A death without peace.

So was her punishment, for nobody could defy a god and get away with it.

But now… finally, after multiple millennia, she had a chance to be free. Her deathly pale hand pulsing with crimson veins lightly touched the cool window pane.

“The veil of time has been broken. The past and the future are mixing like they never should. But most importantly, the day of judgement has come!” And finally, she could die. 

It was with a smile that she could feel her aura drain. A slow, but steady process, due to the size of her vast aura pool.

Suddenly, she felt a presence. A powerful one. The god of light perhaps, or the god of darkness? She looked in the direction the feeling came from, and paused.

“...Who are you?”

_ ~(RWBY: Infinity Crisis)~ _


	2. More Strange Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A million thanks to my new beta, The Path of a Writer! Please check out his works too!
> 
> Beta: Path of a Writer and Rune

_ _RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS_ _

“You just hijacked a flying helicopter with  _ a pair of hammers _ ! Was it that government agent guy, some director Furry, who made you? I know he was involved in super-soldier projects, but this? Say… do they make bunny girls like this too?” Tony quipped. His expression was controlled, almost neutral, but still expressive, as if he were a bored comedian. 

Blake sighed as she sat beside him.  _ Bunny girl? …is that racist? Unlike Cardin, he seemed to have said it like a quip. I don’t believe he intended for it to be racist, I think… Why does he have to be so confusing? _

During her initial attack on the helicopter, her attention had frayed when she hit the glass and her bow had peaked out of the protection of her aura before getting torn away. Her ears were revealed. Now her companion was never letting her hear the end of it. They were located behind the pilot seats, their backs to them and a wall in between, and still a small distance away from the helicopter’s side doors. Tony poked his head around the corner to check that the pilot was going in a probably correct way. 

“Did they snatch you from your mommy and pappy and then poke you with some needles? Or were there volunteers? Where do I sign up?” He said as he turned back to her.

The faunus’ chin was pointed away from her exasperating companion. Her hands were daintily laid on her unruffled uniform. The genius, on the other hand, sat with straight posture just like her, but with a touch of his classic smugness. The wind blowing through the helicopter due to the large hole in the windshield helped keep everything chilly, so he wasn’t as uncomfortable as he was before. He was back in the mood for his witty jokes. Or was he just always in that kind of mood? Still, she would need his help if she was ever going to escape the desert and rush back to help her team.

Tony nodded as if he had received an answer. “Of course, you are correct. Cute cat ears would not fit someone of my stature. Maybe a shark fin? Or special eyes, so I can have infrared vision. Can I have multiple traits? I should get a pair of large eagle wings, plus a shark fin so that I can tease those asian commies with my luxurious snacky back. …though now that I think about it, that might reveal me as a pool shark. Ah! I would rather like that other thing sharks have. Don’t they have two pe– “ He was interrupted by an aggravated Blake, who finally faced him with a glare. She knew exactly what he was talking about, she had read enough ‘Tales of Predatorial Passion Under the Sea’ to know. 

It was almost insulting. The faunus had not suffered under human domination for so long only to turn into some kind of… of joke! Still, he could just be ignorant, after all, there were places in the world without faunus, and it really was not a big deal. “Sir, faunus are born faunus, not made.”

Tony stared at her. “Look, if there was another race of humans with cat ears, we would have long heard abo – oh!” His eyes widened as he realized something. “Tell me quickly, does the phrase ‘tin foil hat’ mean anything to you?”

What? “No.”

“Thank god! I was afraid that if cat people existed under the radar, then there would be snake people invading the American government too. At least the flat earthers are wrong. Right?”

She stared at him as if he was an alien.

“The Earth is flat!”

Blake had enough and turned away from him again. 

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry! I’m just curious, can’t stop my scientific curiosity. Progress, humanity, and all that. You are too incredible and out of this world, supergirl.”

That last sentence bothered her. A civilised human who had never seen a huntress is almost an impossibility. There was nowhere on Remnant without Grimm, and without huntresses, the Grimm would have slaughtered any nearby humans. Even the Atlas robots were ripped apart by the forces of darkness. Huntresses had to be there if humanity was to thrive.

He also made what was probably a lot of references to what she guessed was… unpopular literature? Blake read a lot and it was strange that she didn’t get any of them, the jokes flying right by her ears. Maybe he was extremely well read and was arrogantly quoting rare classics to flaunt his intellectual superiority? It would fit his personality. 

However, more things didn’t add up. What was this helicopter? Atlas had shared its anti-gravitational dust propulsion technology with the world. Ancient technology like propellers never made it big. Even terrorist organisations like the White Fang did not use them as they were discontinued before they were even at the manufacturing stage, which was one of the reasons why Joan met and fell in love with Arty and joined in his gay relationship with Steve in ‘Lusty Argonian Maid’.  _ Or was that ‘A Rose in the Sky’s Garden’?  _ She tries to not think about that last one. Somehow, the sequel was better, for the first time in forever!

She cut off that train of thought. It was no time to think of smut –  _ I - I mean, classic, realistic literature _ . Which was not smut, no matter what Yang said.

“What are you thinking about, Aristotle?”

Her ears twitched in irritation. “Sir – “

“My acquaintances call me Tony.”

“…doesn’t it go ‘my friends call me…’ – ugh.  _ Tony _ , how long has it been since you last checked if our pilot is going the right way?”

“About a second into your deep contemplation of the universe. There was a map and I learned navigation in the next minute.” He held up the mentioned map. It wasn’t in his hands before. “Your resident friendly neighborhood genius here. Anyways, it looks like your attack damaged some of the helicopter’s systems, so I’ll have to make some repairs. We’ll be dropping in a nearby village. It's far enough from the border so that it should be safe and I may know a guy there. Hey, start a circus?”

“What?”

“Well, do you have any money on you?”

“…no.”

“Unless you want to steal some tools and parts, we are going to have to work for them. With your cat ears and abilities and my business focused mind, I think a show would ma – woah, I don’t like how you are shaking while fingering those hammers…”

He was kind of like a very brainy Yang, Blake realized. Unconsciously, the comparison brought her extra patience to deal with his antics. She sighed. “This is karma for joining the White Fang, isn’t it.”

They landed a few moments later in an open area. Within walking distance was a small settlement, nested in the side of a large dusty hill. Rock and dust made up most of the desolate landscape. The buildings were built partially into the rock face for good elevation, sun blockage, and most importantly, good drainage due to these biomes having fewer, but heavier downpours. The area was surrounded by hardy desert vegetation, like arid climate bushes. Unlike most desert stereotypes, this one had no cacti.

Blake searched the helicopter for equipment and found rope, rations, a small repair kit, and several toy guns. She also found a black piece of cloth, taking time to sit down and making it into a new bow to cover her ears. 

“Catgirl priorities. Can’t say I understand them.”

She glanced at him before finishing her head accessory with a tightening pull. “How will we do this?” she inquired, ignoring his comment. 

“I’m thinking we should just ask around. See if there is anybody with the parts we need. Oh, and see if we can get a pay phone, that would be very helpful. A cell phone would be great too. And since we are talking about consumer products, I would love a cheeseburger.“ He used some rags to make a makeshift sack. ”A nice American cheeseburger. Other countries like the UAC just don’t make the same authentic greasy burger. Those tree-huggers make healthy nutritious salad sandwiches, can you imagine that? Yuck.” 

Blake opened her mouth. 

“As for Mr. Choplifter here, well, can’t exactly bring him with us tied up like that to keep him from running away. We’ll look like slavers. Who knows if the locals are alright with that. Instead, I’ll take a few key items with us to prevent people from stealing the helicopter and you tie the pilot up. Then we’ll go together. See? Great plan.”

She closed her mouth. Not seeing any problems, she turned to do her task.

BANG.

Her head snapped to stare at Tony, who looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or more precisely, the adult engineer with his hand inside a suddenly busted electrical panel.

“Ah. Just some complete electrical burn out. No problem, good thing we landed, or we would be pancakes. Not tasty ones either, rather a few disgusting, body parts everywhere, red ones. Look, master engineer, no worries – ”

POP. He yelped as a tiny electrical part exploded into sparks… right beside his crotch. 

_ …right… _

Blake wanted to curl up into a ball of fluff and hide, hoping it was all a bad dream.  _ And damn it, that was NOT a kitten comparison! Good thing Yang isn’t here. _ “Tony…”

“Don’t you worry, kitty cat, I’ve built an arc reactor inside a cave and wrote the plans for a stealth fighter in the bathroom. I know how to weld together the whole left structure of a helicopter. Don’t ask about the fighter though. Classified.” He poked and prodded at a section of the frame surrounding the panel. “Wow, this would have fallen apart on us at any moment. Either you are a lot heavier than you look, so much that you generate your own sizeable gravitational field, and did more damage than what I had initially thought, or this helicopter has seen some heavy use.”

Blake had no idea what to say. She just hoped she wasn’t trusting the wrong guy with her escape from the desert.

The pilot shot her a fearful glance every once in a while. He was silent, possibly afraid to anger the goddess of war that he had unfortunately attacked. There was no struggle as she tied him to a metal beam. He looked down the whole time, meek, eyes wide, scared. 

When she was finished, she turned to Tony, showing him the toy guns. “Do you know what these are?”

He took one look at them. “Ah yes, Stark Industries makes basically all of these. Rifles to bat and shoot some piñatas? We got them. Guns to shoot people? Yeah, the piñata guns can do that too. We are incredibly popular, especially with all this post-war drama. Every house owns one. I told my investors: don’t you worry about the quarterly numbers, one day, weapons will be selected as the ‘this common household object is alive’ movie for Pixar and we’ll make billions.” He shrugged, seemingly relaxed, but Blake’s keen eyes saw tension on his face. The man stared at the weapons longer than normal before meeting her eyes again. He was thinking about something. 

“They aren’t just models? Can you use them to defend yourself?”

“Hammer Girl, don’t tell me you’ve never seen a gun before.”

“These just look very… plastic. How strong are they?” She turned the gun so that it pointed at the empty area between her left index and middle finger. It was something a lot of huntsmen did. Due to the power of aura, one dust round did little. Pointing it at the space between her fingers allowed the bullet to still hit her aura and miss her actual body if it were to somehow penetrate her defense. 

Tony’s eyes widened. “Woaah there – “

She flipped the safety with practiced ease, pulled the trigger, and instantly regretted it. It wasn’t any kind of physical wound on her hands, however, that made her regret it. The problem was the sound. The loud gunshot was further augmented by the small space inside the helicopter, stunning Blake. Her bow flattened against her hair while her hands sprung up to cover her sensitive human ears. She stumbled. The rifle dropped from her hands.

“…! …!” Whatever he said as he rushed over, Blake couldn’t hear. Luckily for her, actual permanent damage was limited by her aura. Her hearing returned quickly. 

He inspected her woundless hands. “…ke! Blake, can you hear me?” 

“Argh… yes. I’m ok! I’m ok.” Recovered, she nudged him out of her personal space. “But who makes guns like… like that?!” 

Deducing that she was talking about the sound from her reaction and her lack of wounds, he answered with another question. “Do you catgirls only use guns with silencers or something? And have Man of Steel genes in you too?” He sounded nonchalant, but his eyes clearly said, ‘are you crazy?’

“…No, but are your guns all this loud and with no power?” 

As a weapon manufacturer who recognized his own products, Tony was mildly insulted. At least he was, until he saw the bullet the school girl held up. She had caught the bullet with her aura. 

The pilot gaped. Tony stared. His normally quick mouth was frozen. A second passed.

“Holy. Shit.”

Meanwhile, Blake was contemplating exactly how powerful Weiss’ semblance was. This place she found herself in was so strange, so different. They used rotary blades, had what were most likely gunpowder weapons from what she could tell from the smell, and possibly no aura. If one of Weiss’ ancestors could warp space, who is to say that there was not a chance to warp the space between dimensions? Or universes? If she really had been warped across realities, then an even bigger question nagged at her.  _ How will I ever get back? _

The technological genius seemed amazed. None of it showed in his expression, but his eyes focused intensely on her. “You caught. A bullet. Superman style. Or Matrix style. I don’t care. What matters is, how can I learn to do this?”

If she ever wanted to get back, she’d need help. Her semblance only involved the creation of clones. Reality warping… now that was something she’d need others for. She’d need allies. This man here was sort of indebted to her. She saved his life from the ‘helicopter’ vehicle, so he should be honor bound to help her back. Right?

“Well… it’s hard to explain.”

“Don’t worry, I have a Masters in electrical engineering and physics while being internationally renowned for my innovations and also dabbling heavily in robotics and cybernetics… since recently. As a hobby. Yes, yes, incredibly impressive. A lot of people would call me the Leonardo Da Vinci of our time. I disagree, I don’t appreciate naked men.” 

Blake took his reply as the sign to start explaining as the reference went right over the faunus’ head. Having seen that she was alright and his questions about to be answered, he returned to his inspection and removal of helicopter parts. Her cat ears flattened against her hair. “Well, I used aura.” She flared up the force field around her body and clothing into the visible spectrum. It glowed a light purple, like one of those shielding systems ever so common in futuristic video games. “Aura… is the manifestation of the soul. A gift given by – “

“Woah, woah, woah!” Tony turned towards her and raised his arms, motioning for her to stop. “Are you about to talk to me about,” He stretched his mouth so that it was wide and sarcastic, then tilted his head to look at her through his eyelashes, “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?” His expression loosened to deadpan, “If so, then I think Pepper, and by extension, me, has heard it enough from those Jehovah Witnesses…”

_ A very incomprehensible, impatie – er, distastefully impatient, Yang _ , Blake moaned internally. “Tony, do you want answers or not?”

“Of course, but if you start trying to convert me to Scientology, you’ll have to pay me.“ He gave a quick grin before he turned to his work again.

The cat-faunus sighed. “Like I said a few minutes before you interrupted me, aura is the manifestation of the soul. It is our desires given form, changing the very reality around us. Primarily, this results in enhanced durability, strength, and speed.”

“And all cat girls can do this? Meine Führer, cat girls… they are the real master race. Honestly, I wouldn’t be against that, if the bunny girl population stays the same. Or improves.” There was a release of steam as he removed a hydraulic component from the wall. He threw it into his bag.

_ …’master race’? Is that a reference to the Human Purity Movement? Or is it something else from his world? _ “All humans and faunus can do this. The real problem is finding compatible unlocked souls whose aura can resonate and bring out your own. Moments of extreme stress can also unlock it too, but normally, the person will die before he or she can learn how to use aura.”

“You are really pulling my leg here. How come nobody has heard of superhumans like this? Its that Furry guy, isn’t it. I knew his name had to be an indication of his preferences.”

“No, the answer is much… stranger.” She was thinking hard, looking for words to explain to him her situation. It didn’t help at all that her companion was distracting her.

“What, did you pop out of a fictional show?”

If she could die from exasperation, Blake would have died nine times over. “Please be serious for one second, Sir – Tony.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll give you some time. My secretary says my time is worth a lot of money though, you sure you can afford it?”

“Tony, I’m serious. I… I think I might have crossed dimensions.”

“You look 3D to me.”

“…”  _ For the love of all Faunus! Seriously?! That’s it, time to pull out the sass!  _

“Well, where ever you came from, Cat-Eyed Joe, we first have to get back to civilisation before I can help you. Don’t worry, I’ll pay you back, unlike those Nigerian princes.”

“You sound pretty confident that you can help me.” If there was one thing the faunus had learned from her time as a terrorist, it was to be as cautious as possible. All her assumptions about her situation were just that, assumptions. She had no idea where she was or who this man could be. For all she knows, they could be in a remote corner of the world where there was no Grimm. Nobody knew how the Grimm worked after all, so that could be true. Maybe she didn’t cross universes? 

Tony could be lying to her, about the robot suit, about not knowing what a huntress was, not that she could think of any reason for him to do so. There was just so much she didn’t know about where she was. She had to learn more. 

“I’m Tony Stark.” His bored, confident smile disappeared when his companion replied to him in her usual calm voice, not recognizing him at all. 

“Blake Belladonna.”

“…I’m going to guess you are not a Shield agent and that you live under a rock. Or maybe it’s the dust and grime on my face.” He wiped some dirt off his face. “Tah-dah, owner of Stark Industries and super genius, at your service.”

“Stark Industries?” Why did that remind her of the Schnee Dust Company?

“We are the largest weapon manufacturer in the world. Makers of those weapons.” He motioned towards the guns on the ground.

The SDC had left Blake with a bad impression of large international businesses. “That’s… interesting.” She forced out. Blake hoped it wasn’t anything like it. 

“Ok, kitty cat, you’ve convinced me. Other world, got it. Sheesh, you are about as good of an audience as my workers.”

“I can’t imagine working with a boss as outrageously amazing like you.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

Tony lightly smirked. “Why, Ms. Teenager, I am honored.” He placed a hand on his chest and acted bashful at the ‘praise’. “You must have a lot of bosses to compare me to.”

“Well, I did have one and he almost killed hundreds of innocents – ” Blake lightly gasped and covered her mouth. While it wasn’t a dangerous secret, it still was info she would rather keep to herself. “It was a bad day. And I was the one who stopped him.” She added.  _ Stupid Blake! _ The ex-terrorist thought that her own reveal as ex-White Fang to her team would have been an important enough lesson in relation to her loose mouth. On the other hand, the point of a faunus rights terrorist is being heard…  _ Don’t give yourself excuses. _

He was just so witty that she just wanted to render him speechless. Joke’s on her, she played herself.

Tony didn’t react, or at least, visibly. “The exciting life of Catgirl and Bossman. Sounds like a long story. Nice chat, back to work now.” He grabbed a clipboard that hung from the wall and flipped the checklist so that he had blank pages to work with. Using the pen that was attached to the clipboard by string, he wrote the list of items he needed. 

Blake watched on, uneasy. There was no way he was going to ignore the fact that she revealed that she almost killed people. 

He finished his list, nodded as if coming to a conclusion, and looked outside the window. Then, he nonchalantly asked Blake, “Ready, Hammer Girl?” Accepting her silent nod as a response, he grabbed a pistol for self defense and hid it in his clothes as he then casually strolled out of the helicopter. 

Wary, she grabbed her hammers and followed him.

_ _RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS_ _

The faunus walked behind Tony who was leading the way. A piece of cloth was wrapped around the lower half of his face to attempt to hide his identity.

He hadn’t said one word since their conversation in the helicopter. He was focused on Blake’s claim that she was from a different world. Even his quick mind required some time to process what should be an impossible event. To his surprise, however, he was starting to believe the catgirl.

The powers she had were incredible. True, Captain America and the Hulk had incredible durability. But, did they have what could be either a force field or incredible speed allowing her to catch a bullet? And what about just making physics not work? There was no way anybody, not even Superman, could time his jump just right to shoot energy beams at tiny distant rockets traveling at about 500 mph, land on the debris of the missiles, and propel himself straight into the windshield of a moving helicopter. The sheer amount of finesse it required was insane… unless she was cheating with flight powers.

Then there was her attire and choice of weaponry. A school girl uniform in the desert is like wearing soccer gear at a formal meeting. The only explanation for that would be if she wasn’t expecting herself to be in a desert. 

And dual hammers? Even if they were magical energy blade shooting ones, why would they be in the shape of hammers? Blunt trauma was only effective against tough armor, like plate armor in medieval times. Convenience?  _ Hm, it would look good, and unexpected for your enemies… Looking good and shooting good.  _ The image of a stylish man in a tux and bowl hat came to his mind.  _ Maybe I should create a new product line, exquisite canes with hidden rifles?  _

He tossed away that idea quickly.  _ Your actions have consequences, Tony. Remember that. _ It was easy to make weapons when you are sitting in your penthouse, siping Château Cheval Blanc, far away from the death and destruction that became known to him as mere numbers on a quarterly report card.

Done with this tangent, his mind instantly snapped back to his original train of thought.

Additionally, cat ears. He thought they were fake at first, but they twitched, and moved, and straightened in response to her mood. Depending on how he talked, they would go through different actions to represent what she felt. It was exciting, it was insane, it was incredible. Very incredible. Most importantly, it was something incredibly dumb to fake, or to make. What use is there to fake cat ears? What uses are there  _ for _ cat ears?  _ Other than looking cute, of course. Which is, if I’m being honest here, probably another of her catgirl priorities. _

Tony did not miss the fact that she was wearing eyeliner, and it somehow wasn’t smudged at all. It was these features that added much needed legitimacy to her story, enough that Tony was willing to accept that maybe she wasn’t from around here. But she could be an alien. From space. With butt probing and all tha - 

His face twisted.  _ Alright, bad move, thought. In the garbage bin you go. _ He mentally gagged.

Ignoring accidental stray-thought pedophillism, there was so much in terms of science he could learn from her. If he could work out how her powers, well, worked, maybe he could incorporate them into, say, a new suit! A dress shirt… that auto-cools. Bullet proof and wrinkle proof suit jackets that repelled dirt! Think of the possibilities! Oh yeah, and maybe a cool new power armor. But exquisitely comfortable suits are also important. Obi - well, he won’t be happy he wasted so much of the company’s money, but he would be thankful inside. Very deeply inside. 

It also didn’t just have to be suits of cloth or armor. He had seen how Blake’s feet didn’t sink in the sand at all. If that technology could be applied to even more fluid substances like air, levitation would be possible, revolutionizing transportation. These weren’t just super powers. These were applications of technology that could change the world. _Remember what Obi told you. Life is opportunity!_

Still, it wasn’t as if he wasn’t aware of just how harmful her powers could be. She could probably crush his skull through an accidental smack from her hand, or destroy buildings with a punch. Nevertheless, Tony was not scared of Blake at all. She looked to be in her later teenage years and her behavior displayed a combination of both experience in combat and naivety in terms of everything else. Through her previous actions in shielding him, he could tell that she had a good heart underneath all that quiet teenage angst. He could trust that she wouldn’t betray him.  _ Everything else, like getting back home before curfew, not running away from home, and knowing that dark edgy boyfriends are bad? Ha! Forget it. _

_ ...why does it feel like I hit the nail on the head? _

So what? Her boss tried to kill some people? It’s not like Tony himself wasn’t indirectly massacrying millions. It was the heart that counted… right? Blake made herself to be a good teenage mutant cat girl, and weapon making was pretty much all that Tony knew. Some people just can’t choose the paths they take.

On that note, weapons... Tony had been conflicted about his company ever since his time in the terrorist cave. Oh, it wasn’t because he got blown up by his own explosives. That was ironic, but it didn’t really change his world view. Was he supposed to stop all weapon production just because he finally understood what shrapnel entering his body felt like? No!

Shrapnel entering your body was painful, by the way. Very painful. Not everyone had this ‘aura’ to bullshit their way through explosions without getting hurt. On that note, water proof, heat proof, mascara-smudge proof, AND bullet proof? Complete BS.

_ Anyways, back on topic. Weapons. _ The reason he was conflicted was Yinsen. In the cave in which he was imprisoned, there was another man, a fellow engineer and physicist by the name of Ho Yinsen. He was intelligent, though not as smart as yours truly, but he was innovative in his own strict way. 

It was he who saved Tony’s life by implanting an electromagnet inside of his chest, keeping the metal shards deep inside his body from piercing his heart. While he had to do it, for he was forced to, he didn’t have to plot with Tony behind all the terrorists’ backs. He didn’t have to help Tony create a miniature arc reactor that will power a prototype iron man suit. He didn’t have to lie to the terrorists, playing them like idiots. He didn’t have to risk his life for Tony. 

Yinsen had a son and a wife, both who he had talked about as if they were his world. To ‘convince’ the man to help them, the terrorists promised he would be released and reunited with his family. A normal man would have followed the terrorists for even the slightest chance of escape. But Yinsen… Yinsen was a good man. He saw a man in need and threw all that away. The man saw wrong in the world and sought to correct it. For that, he will always have the american’s thanks. 

Tony had thought that these kinds of men were fools, as his father and Obi had taught him. Kind men like him sacrificed all they had for strangers without even knowing if they would repay them. Kindness was weakness, and undeserving greedy corporations loved to prey on weakness. 

The lesson was easy to understand for Tony at first. But he never thought that Stark Industries, the legacy that his father created with sweat and blood, would be one of those undeserving greedy corporations. 

A good comparison would be a drug dealer. First, drugs are sold. People get hooked. More drugs get sold. Prices grow as demand gets higher, but all your victi - customers can not live without your product because they are addicted. Your products become a lifeline, a lifeline that drains their health and sanity at just a low enough rate for you to profit maximally.

Just like drugs, violence spreads and breeds insidiously in the hearts of men. Say a group is angry. Arm them. They start a war. To defend themselves, their enemy must also arm themselves. The war grows bigger. International relations get in the way. War spreads. Hatred for that group for stepping in. Hatred for that group for not stepping in. Sides are chosen. Weapons are distributed, and through the bloodshed of others, profits are made.

Tony wasn’t naive. He knew that it was the natural state of things. If it wasn’t Stark Industries, it would have been another company. As long as humans exist, there will be conflict, and someone who would profit from it. However, for the first time ever, he was questioning it. Good men like Yinsen died in this chaos, used and discarded like trash.  _ Could I stand to continue this cycle of destruction? Could I stand to have a hand in the millions of deaths? _

Tony was pulled from his contemplation when he heard his name being called. He looked around. They were inside the cliff-side town, walking on the main street at ground level. Only about a minute had passed since his exit of the helicopter due to the sheer speed of his thoughts.

He turned around to face the person who called his name, but something bugged him.

“Blake, when did your voice get so dee - oh. Yinsen!”

_ _RWBY: INFINITY CRISIS_ _

His silence had been scary to Blake. What did he think of her now? A thousand guesses at his internal thoughts had eaten at the faunus as she walked behind him. 

When she heard a man approach from behind, her hands had gripped her weapons in a better combat-ready way. She wasn’t sure of his allegiances. 

She didn’t turn around until the stranger called out her companion’s name. He looked Vacuan, but wore strange white cloths that covered all his exposed skin and hair. The tension seeped out of her body when Tony recognized him. The two men looked like old friends, greeting each other and commenting on each other’s well being. Blake felt a bit left out, but wasn’t about to disrupt their reunion.

“Ah, you were correct. The hydraulic fluid compensator parts C-16 thru C-18 were supposed to be flipped. I flew the wrong way, that’s why it took me so long to get here. The Tony Airlines may get sued by a single very ticked off passenger in a few days. How’d the drone work out?”

“Splendid, Stark. I did not expect you to be this good at robotics. None of them would have expected the missile to transform into a drone and take off, and then take down so many of their men. I also did not expect you to pick up on the uses of old outdated Cold War UAC actuators so fast. You make wonders, Stark. My deepest  gratitudegratitudes for that, by the way. I would have surely died without it.”

“Thank you. I am pretty good. You know me, dedicated, stubborn, got to get an in-depth knowledge of every field I study. That’s why they call me the Merchant of Depth.” 

The man named Yinsen laughed. Tony smirked.

“So, who is this young woman?” Yinsen eyed her hammers and clothing with slight confusion. 

“Blake,” she introduced herself. 

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Blake.” 

She opened her mouth to correct him, but Tony spoke faster. 

“I met her on the way here. She’s lost, a bit like me.” Tony looked around. “We should talk more in your house.” 

Yinsen got the hint. He motioned for them to follow him. 

Something caught Blake’s eye. She looked at a large part of the cliff face that was above the current part of the town they were in and had no buildings autop it. On its surface, ever so little, she could make out…

_ Is that Yang’s emblem? _

“Blake? What, did you find some catnip?” Tony called out from further away. They were about to go around a corner and head up some stairs to the houses above them, on the side of the hill.

She didn’t even spare him a glance, such was her surprise.  _ No way... _ The marking was huge and possibly chiseled into the rock, but faded enough that it could just be something else.  _ Just a coincidence, Blake.  _

She ran after her companions. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yinsen?! YANG?!
> 
> What could have made all these changes? 
> 
> Review Responses
> 
> Guest
> 
> Is Salem Gone please be gone.
> 
> Hm. Is she or is she not, that is the question.
> 
> _
> 
> TH3CRAZYM0D
> 
> She travelled in time!?
> 
> That would make some weird time paradox here…
> 
> That is the question, isn’t it. Does her actions in the past affect the future? Does her actions in the past destroy HER future? How does time travel work in this fic? All questions to be answered in future chapters.
> 
> _
> 
> Daughter of Ironman06
> 
> Wait, Blake is in Ironman? So I’m guessing Weiss and Ruby (and possibly Yang) might be featured in different MCU movies, is my prediction.
> 
> Pretty much. You want a cookie? Tough luck, Ruby ate them all. 
> 
> Extra (reusable?):
> 
> Blake had enough. There were lots of other people in the world who could help her. It didn’t have to be this aggravating man. She turned away from Tony and walked out of the helicopter. The only problem was, she was in a new reality. For all she knew, the whole rest of the world was devoid of life. 
> 
> It could be like that one book, the War of Winter, where the dashing female protagonist hides her faunus heritage to participate in a giant war between the two dominant factions of old Remnant. One was the USDC, a very accurate country version of the SDC, fighting to preserve economic inequality. On the other side was the great Wave of Red, workers bound together by their common pain, striving for a future that their leader denied them. Oh, it was so very tragic.
> 
> The war escalates until both nations were equipped with city-destroying weapons. They locked themselves in a weapon race, spying and thieving to become the toughest kid on the block. Tensions were high and the world was at the brink of destruction. Unfortunately, even with the protagonist’s best efforts, disaster struck and the weapons were launched. The heroine wept for her love behind the walls of a bomb shelter as he made a final stand against lawless bandits. The epilogue hinted that the surface of the planet was uninhabitable for hundreds of years.
> 
> Think about your books sometime else, Blake. War of Winter and any of its fan made… explicit fanfictions can wait, no matter how romantic or saucy they are. The air was dry and warm. Every billow of wind sent sand bouncing off her aura. The ground felt almost even, being covered with finely shaped rocks, weathered down by the elements.
> 
> “I’m kidding! I’m kidding! Look, I’ll try to stop alright?”
> 
> An aggravating supposed genius, or people she hadn’t met yet.
> 
> A talkative, always interrupting, witty man, or people she hadn’t met yet.
> 
> A native to this world with a reason to help her and is in a situation to be in need of help, or people she hadn’t met yet.
> 
> She forced herself to take another step away from him. Her foot dug into the harsh arid ground. Blake had made up her mind and she will stick to it. No matter what. 
> 
> Later, Blake and her reinstated companion strolled through the single street of the village. The sun was lower now and the temperature had dropped to manageable levels. There were a few people milling about going through their daily routines, each of them staring at the foreigners with distrustful eyes. None of them acted on their feelings. Desert life was already hard enough, there was no need to complicate it without good reason.
> 
> Tony had repositioned his rags to hide partially his face. He didn’t want to be recognized, but also didn’t want to get heat stroke. A strategically wrapped piece of cloth allowed him to hide a sidearm inside his clothing just in case. He had brought a duffel bag with him, ‘borrowed’ from the pilot, in which he brought a few key items like spark plugs to keep anybody from jacking their ride. 
> 
> Blake had collapsed her hammers and hid them in her sleeves. She still wore her Beacon uniform, having no other outfit to wear, so had no pockets. ! None of the villagers recognized how out of place her clothes were, only knowing that they were foreigner’s. 
> 
> “Your presence confirms any theory with multiverses incorporated. That is, if you are speaking the truth. Excuse my incredulity, but anyone would be 
> 
> Extra
> 
> If only the Cross Continental Transmit System could send and receive more information, then everyone could talk to each other, all the time, and exchange ideas, all the time. The Fang could spread their ideals through broadcasts to plead their ideals to the whole population, instead of having to go through the corrupt media.

**Author's Note:**

> Old A/N: So, there’s multiple things I have to say:
> 
> There is a good reason for why there’s an attack helicopter this time.  
Also, don’t worry, this story includes more than just one RWBY character.  
About ‘The Path Most Traveled’, yes, there is a chapter coming this week.


End file.
